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Tzounakou AM, Stathori G, Paltoglou G, Valsamakis G, Mastorakos G, Vlahos NF, Charmandari E. Childhood Obesity, Hypothalamic Inflammation, and the Onset of Puberty: A Narrative Review. Nutrients 2024; 16:1720. [PMID: 38892653 PMCID: PMC11175006 DOI: 10.3390/nu16111720] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2024] [Revised: 05/23/2024] [Accepted: 05/24/2024] [Indexed: 06/21/2024] Open
Abstract
The onset of puberty, which is under the control of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis, is influenced by various factors, including obesity, which has been associated with the earlier onset of puberty. Obesity-induced hypothalamic inflammation may cause premature activation of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons, resulting in the development of precocious or early puberty. Mechanisms involving phoenixin action and hypothalamic microglial cells are implicated. Furthermore, obesity induces structural and cellular brain alterations, disrupting metabolic regulation. Imaging studies reveal neuroinflammatory changes in obese individuals, impacting pubertal timing. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy enables the assessment of the brain's neurochemical composition by measuring key metabolites, highlighting potential pathways involved in neurological changes associated with obesity. In this article, we present evidence indicating a potential association among obesity, hypothalamic inflammation, and precocious puberty.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anastasia-Maria Tzounakou
- Center for the Prevention and Management of Overweight and Obesity, Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes, First Department of Pediatrics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School, ‘Aghia Sophia’ Children’s Hospital, 11527 Athens, Greece; (A.-M.T.); (G.S.)
| | - Galateia Stathori
- Center for the Prevention and Management of Overweight and Obesity, Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes, First Department of Pediatrics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School, ‘Aghia Sophia’ Children’s Hospital, 11527 Athens, Greece; (A.-M.T.); (G.S.)
| | - George Paltoglou
- Diabetes Unit, Second Department of Pediatrics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School, ‘P. & A. Kyriakou’ Children’s Hospital, 11527 Athens, Greece;
| | - Georgios Valsamakis
- Second Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School, ‘Aretaieion’ University Hospital, 11528 Athens, Greece; (G.V.); (G.M.); (N.F.V.)
| | - George Mastorakos
- Second Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School, ‘Aretaieion’ University Hospital, 11528 Athens, Greece; (G.V.); (G.M.); (N.F.V.)
| | - Nikolaos F. Vlahos
- Second Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School, ‘Aretaieion’ University Hospital, 11528 Athens, Greece; (G.V.); (G.M.); (N.F.V.)
| | - Evangelia Charmandari
- Center for the Prevention and Management of Overweight and Obesity, Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes, First Department of Pediatrics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School, ‘Aghia Sophia’ Children’s Hospital, 11527 Athens, Greece; (A.-M.T.); (G.S.)
- Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Center of Clinical, Experimental Surgery and Translational Research, Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece
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Shearrer GE. The Interaction of Glycemia with Anxiety and Depression Is Related to Altered Cerebellar and Cerebral Functional Correlations. Brain Sci 2023; 13:1086. [PMID: 37509016 PMCID: PMC10377615 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13071086] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2023] [Revised: 07/06/2023] [Accepted: 07/17/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Depression, type 2 diabetes (T2D), and obesity are comorbid, and prevention and treatment of all three diseases are needed. We hypothesized an inverse relationship between the connectivity of the cingulo-opercular task control network with the somatosensory mouth network and the interaction between HbA1c and depression. Three-hundred and twenty-five participants (BMI: 26.11 ± 0.29; Achenbach adult self-report (ASR) DSM depressive problems T-score (depression): 54.60 ± 6.77; Age: 28.26 ± 3.90 y; adult self-report anxiety and depression scale (anxiety and depression): 54.69 ± 7.27; HbA1c: 5.26 ± 0.29; 68% white) were sampled from the Human Connectome Project 1200 subjects PTN release. Inclusion criteria were: four (15 min) resting state fMRI scans; BMI; hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c); and complete adult self-report data. The following models were run to assess the connectivity between 15 independent fMRI components: the interaction of depression with HbA1c; anxiety and depression with HbA1c; depression with BMI; and anxiety and depression with BMI. All models were corrected for a reported number of depressive symptoms, head motion in the scanner, age, and race. Functional connectivity was modeled in FSLNets. Corrected significance was set at pFWE < 0.05. The interaction HbA1c and anxiety and depression was positively related to the connectivity of the cerebellum with the visual network (t = 3.76, pFWE = 0.008), frontoparietal network (t = 3.45, pFWE = 0.02), and somatosensory mouth network (t = 4.29, pFWE = 0.0004). Although our hypotheses were not supported, similar increases in cerebellar connectivity are seen in patients with T2D and overall suggest that the increased cerebellar connectivity may be compensatory for an increasingly poor glycemic control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Grace E Shearrer
- Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, Neuroscience Program, School of Computing, College of Agriculture, Life Sciences and Natural Resources, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82070, USA
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Wang L, Xu H, Tan B, Yi Q, Liu H, Deng H, Chen Y, Wang R, Tian J, Zhu J. Gut microbiota and its derived SCFAs regulate the HPGA to reverse obesity-induced precocious puberty in female rats. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) 2022; 13:1051797. [PMID: 36568086 PMCID: PMC9782419 DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2022.1051797] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2022] [Accepted: 11/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
The intestinal microbiota and its derived short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) can reverse obesity and obesity-related metabolic diseases, but whether it has an effect on obesity complicated by precocious puberty and its potential mechanism need to be further understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the gut microbiota and its derived short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) on obesity-induced precocious puberty rats and their regulatory mechanisms. We constructed obesity-induced precocious puberty rats using a high-fat diet (HFD) had notable similarity to precocious puberty caused by obesity due to overeating in children. We then added acetate, propionate, butyrate or their mixture to the HFD, and investigated the effect of intestinal microbiota and its derived SCFAs on the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis (HPGA) in rats with obesity-induced precocious puberty. We found that obesity-induced precocious puberty rats had an early first estrous cycle, increased hypothalamic mRNA expression of Kiss1, GPR54 and GnRH, and early gonadal maturation. Meanwhile, the intestinal microbiota imbalance and the main SCFAs production decreased in the colon. The addition of acetate, propionate, butyrate or their mixture to the HFD could significantly reverse the precocious puberty of rats, reduce GnRH release from the hypothalamus and delay the development of the gonadal axis through the Kiss1-GPR54-PKC-ERK1/2 pathway. Our findings suggest that gut microbiota-derived SCFAs are promising therapeutic means for the prevention of obesity-induced precocious puberty and provide new therapeutic strategies with clinical value.
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Affiliation(s)
- Li Wang
- Department of Pediatric Research Institute, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics, Chongqing, China
- Department of Clinical Laboratory, Chengdu Women’s and Children’s Central Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
| | - Hao Xu
- Department of Pediatric Research Institute, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics, Chongqing, China
- Department of Clinical Laboratory, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Bin Tan
- Department of Pediatric Research Institute, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics, Chongqing, China
| | - Qin Yi
- Department of Pediatric Research Institute, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics, Chongqing, China
| | - Huiwen Liu
- Department of Pediatric Research Institute, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics, Chongqing, China
| | - Hongrong Deng
- Department of Pediatric Research Institute, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics, Chongqing, China
| | - Yunxia Chen
- Department of Pediatric Research Institute, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics, Chongqing, China
| | - Rui Wang
- Department of Pediatric Research Institute, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics, Chongqing, China
| | - Jie Tian
- Department of Pediatric Research Institute, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics, Chongqing, China
- Department of Cardiovascular Internal Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Jing Zhu
- Department of Pediatric Research Institute, Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, National Clinical Research Center for Child Health and Disorders, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, Chongqing Key Laboratory of Pediatrics, Chongqing, China
- *Correspondence: Jing Zhu,
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Preissl H, Small D, Kullmann S. Neuroendocrinology and brain imaging. J Neuroendocrinol 2020; 32:e12927. [PMID: 33373090 DOI: 10.1111/jne.12927] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2020] [Accepted: 12/03/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Hubert Preissl
- Institute for Diabetes Research and Metabolic Diseases of the Helmholtz Center Munich at the University of Tübingen, German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD e.V.), Tübingen, Germany
| | - Dana Small
- Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Stephanie Kullmann
- Institute for Diabetes Research and Metabolic Diseases of the Helmholtz Center Munich at the University of Tübingen, German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD e.V.), Tübingen, Germany
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